


The Only Piece

by Emmzzi



Category: The Traitor Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-06 05:29:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8736625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmzzi/pseuds/Emmzzi
Summary: Set after the final battle; alternate ending. Baru knows that she is not the only piece on the board, and considers how she can use this to her advantage. However in the long game, sacrifices have to be made.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [triplesalto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/triplesalto/gifts).



“Who then will be king? There must be a dynasty to unite Aurdwynn.” Xate Olake opened his hands and turned to her.

 

Another test; all was tests, still tests, from the first day of school in Taranoke, every day there were tests. The pounding of victory through her body made Baru long to claim the freedom she had surely, by now, by her cunning and her cool, won.  But the Imperial Accountant within her was still playing the long game; or one of the long games, and she was not, would now always remember she was not, the only piece on the board. Cairdine’s counsel stayed with her: “You can be anything you want to in the Empire of Masks.” And she was, despite all her recent actions and appearances, very much the Empire's pawn.

 

What, then did Baru want; really, truly want? Taranoke was gone, lost in the Act of Federation, and she had not the power to turn time and return to her beloved blacksmith, huntress and shield bearer. she had no wish to be queen, to be Aurdwynn’s figurehead and breeding sow. The ascension would prove a fish hook. She had no wish to betray these people. There had to be a third option.

 

Tain Hu met her gaze. There, in the post battle bloodlust, the joy of victory, Baru longed for nothing more than the final culmination of the months, years, of teasing, game playing, courtship. One night; just one night. Was that so very much to ask? One night of madness before the charade began again. Who would know? Who would say, break the trust? No one; while they operated outside the Imperial Republic.

 

_Is there really nothing you want more?_

 

In the Masquerade, you played by Falcrest rules. “The man gets to brag and the woman’s got to be silent.” Baru had never forgotten Aminata’s caution. If a crime could be proven, “they’ll take a knife to your cunt.” For herself, she could bear it; but Tain Hu had made herself a mighty target and would be the example chosen. That assumed, of course, that the game being played, was to be played by Falcrest rules.

 

The men looked on expectantly. Tain Hu studied the ground. They awaited an answer. Who, indeed, would be king? A woman alone was a dangerous creature. Frigid, tribadist, a physical freak; none of the possible explanations were quite Imperial. 

 

“Let us not decide in haste,” Baru cautioned the party. “A name, a figurehead, “The Fairer Hand” was,”and she caught ‘your’ by sheer force of will, “our leader in wartimes. But peace requires different skills. The fairer hand may serve better in a role other than leader. We shall decide with cool heads on the morrow. For now, we celebrate.” She saw the hope, and the discontent. Each was calculating which king which would bring best advantage to their own factions. Who would be a stable and powerful leader? Who would be willing to take the burden? Who could they best secure patronage with? Who would the people bear? Which allegiances were most profitable, when measured in gold and wheat, and a hundred tiny freedoms from the rule of Falcrest?

 

“Come, my friends - we are friends, surely? Allow me one night of freedom. Prepare your thoughts. We will decide, together, in the morning. Let us rest, and drink, and remember the wisdom of our friendships.”


	2. Chapter 2

Baru nursed her whisky, mimicking a woman who missed her home and drank too much. She observed the dukes observing each other. In peacetime, wealth was the only strength that mattered; they would surely decide that the King should be the duke who controlled the river, or the harbours. A marriage would be made with a daughter or cousin from another dynasty. Given the events to come, it was of no import. Baru Cormorant was a creature of the air, not the ocean, rivers or seas. Soon, this would be below her, if not beneath her. The long game mattered, and the long game was in its infancy.

 

She traced and retraced her thinking. Imperial accountant was a critical role. One of the most important pieces on the board. Not the only piece; but a target, a powerful target; and yet a piece that had been replaced by young blood each time, not old hands. A pawn that made its way across the board to become royalty; but that was not the end of the game. The king still had to be defeated.

 

Tanifel had been executed. Su Olonori had been executed. Xate Olake did not deny the charge, but the murderer had never been brought to justice. Was he in fact the killer, or did he enjoy the notoriety while keeping his hands clean? Surely Falcrest would not sanction the disposal of their own assets, expensively educated, painstakingly indoctrinated. Murder was an act of sheer impertinence; and yet no action had been taken.

 

A murder with their blessing, then? Or perhaps on orders from higher powers still. Once, Baru had thought her home and the beach were the world; then as she grew and could climb the hills and look through the spyglass at all of Taranoke. And as her stature grew, she could see all of Aurdwynn; soon, all of the Republic and the Masquerade. Each year made the world larger. What lay beyond the borders of Oriati Mbo, lay to the west of Tu Mai? What lay above the Masquerade, waiting for a cormorant with a syglass to see? Who had seen her, and also seen beyond?

 

Who had observed; had written to Falcrest, but written false, or at the least, part truths. Who had been on the bar since the beginning of the game, one of the very first sent to Falcrest as a child. Who had been shaped as a young man, when the cogs and gears of the device were being built? Who had died, unseen, unheralded; slipping silently from Baru’s grasp, sight, affections. Who might be on the board yet of a different game? And what else did he know?

 

Lady Vultag sat, watching and waiting.

 

“Do you remember what you told me of power?” Bru asked.

 

“When was this?”

 

“When we met first. When I inspected your accounts. When I first came to know what you are.”

 

“And what am I?” Tain Hu smiled, sensing opportunity.

 

Baru sipped the whisky cautiously. “You taught me of the sources of power. That power comes from money; from faith; from love. That slaughter and madness can be roads to power. Symbols are power; the accountant's purse, and the revolution’s fairer hand.”

 

“And with madness and with slaughter and with love for our country, and faith in our people, we have reclaimed power from Falcrest. We hold the power now. What shall we do with it?”

 

“Lady Vultjag. You did not speak of knowledge. Knowledge is power. I remember one evening Muire Lo and I searched the dicitionaries, seeking a word for “rule by secrets". Knowledge that only you yourself hold is more powerful than any army. I had to know the word; we sat side by side, in the cold night air, I in my nightgown, hunting for a root. There seemed to be no word for it, in this land; in the Masquerade; and yet I have been, I am, ruled by my secret.”

 

Tain Hu leaned in dangerously close, and Baru felt a dozen watchers in the dark. “What secret might that be?” she teased.

 

They were playing different games. Baru placed a hand on Tain Hu’s shoulder, and leveraged herself upright. Tain Hu stood, ready to follow.

 

“I shall sleep alone.” Baru paused, weighing the gamble. “If you ever trusted me, leave before morning. I.. I would like to know that you are safe.”

 

“Trust you? We share so little as trust?” She moved closer. Baru could feel warm breath on her cheeks.

 

“We have won the battle, Tain Hu. Only the battle. Leave, tell no one, travel as far as you can.”

 

“And leave my people?”

 

“For the sake of your people.” Baru grasped both of her hands. "If you ever... there are more forces at play than.."

 

Oathsfire had noticed them. Now he would be calculating further. Baru stepped back sharply, turned, and made her way, alone, to her tent.

 

She was merely the fairer hand; Tain Hu's problems were not her concern. And Cairdine Farrier was merely a wool merchant.


	3. Chapter 3

The next game was played at the Elided Keep. Baru decorated her room with signs of loyalty to the Republic; her chained purse; the imperial seal. The trappings of loyal citizenship.

 

 A secret has no power once it is known. Baru was foolish to think her secret had ever been such. Bel Latheman had known; Muire Lo had held the notebook through the years; Aminata had always suspected;  Purity Cartone knew who he was sent to kill, and why. Tain Hu knew with every drop of blood that pounded in her heart; and all who saw them together must surely have suspected.

 

Someone wished Baru to believe that her secret had died with her; but no secret once told is ever truly secret again.

 

Another test, then? At her bedside, Baru placed Aminata's sabre. She asks for hibiscus flowers. Loking at the table, some would think it was a shrine. When she suspects she is not alone, Baru holds the sabre and speaks to it in the secret language she and Aminata shared as children. She speaks of Taranoke, and of affection, and of the pains of laws which run contrary to her nature; that one day, their people will be free.

 

Despite her wealth and power, Baru has carried the sabre for all of these many years.

 

When the surgeons speak to Baru of her eye, and what in her brain may be preventing her from seeing, they speak of parts of her which may be closed off; and she agrees, but speaks only of school, and her hope that all is well in Oriati. She does not mention Taranoke, or Aurdwynn. She asks how the sailors for the ships to the Elided Keep are chosen; it is clearly an honour to crew such a vessel. Might she visit?

 

She speaks of memories of the battles; what motivates each Duke and Duchess, and how they may best be controlled. She knows, too, that the Masquerade is not real; that no regime with such strict rules, with such untempered power, exists in a vacuum. She has yet to work out which hand guides the hand of the throne which moves us all. Wheels within wheels within wheels.

 

She thinks. She asks often of the dukes and duchesses; who has been punished; what arrangements are being made.

 

She speaks no words of Aminata; poor, betrayed Aminata, who had saved Baru’s school friend from the unwanted attentions of a hygienist; who had unwittingly, but not unnoticed, supported a suspected tribadism. Aminata who was at pains to warn Baru of the dangers of discovery.  Aminata who had taken Baru to a brothel for mixed tastes; and this was a secret which belonged to them both. Baru assumed it had been a trap - but who knew, really? Shore leave was an occasion for release of many kinds.

 

Aminata who since her teenage years has served; who knows only how to serve. 

 

When Aminata is brought forth, it is no surprise. She has been slandering Baru, it seems. Accusing her of foul behaviours. Sacrificing Baru for her own political ambition. She must be punished; the paramount masks must be protected. Who amongst us has lived a life of perfection? Only the clarified; and they cannot lead. But you, Baru, you must be protected. This is for your own good.

 

Tests; will the tests ever end? This one is simple. Baru feels no pain as Aminata is leashed to the rock at low tide; but she manages to show sorrow, discretely. A small aversion of the eye, just for a moment. Then she watches through her blindness as the tide rises. Aminata holds her silence to the end. She looks at Baru until the sea covers her. Baru feels this, although she cannot see it.


	4. Chapter 4

Baru knows what she is. Tain Hu has told her. “I know you're selfish, calculating and farsighted, and when you find no way forward through the Falcresti maze, you’ll resort to tearing it down.”

 

When Baru returns to her rooms, she is not surprised to find the sabre has been removed; that the hibiscus has been replaced with other, mixed flowers. There is no surprise, but there is pleasure, to find that her secretary is ready to help her move to more permanent quarters.

 

“Who will you be sending reports to, Muire Lo?” she asks.

 

“No one, your excellency,” he lies, deliberately inexpert as ever.

 

Soon, Baru will know whose board she is a piece on. Who lies beyond the borders of her narrow world and half vision.

 

"Will we be travelling beyond Falcrest?"

 

"Perhaps."

 

"We shall need a team of people we can trust. That I can trust. People who will stand beside me; stand for me in a duel, for example. Do you believe that will be a problem?"

 

"I had anticipated such a requirement. Arrangements are being made as we speak."

 

She will need a solid, tested field general for the next round. One who knows her strengths, and can mitigate her worst excesses. One with the power of faith, and love.

 

Soon, she will see the whole board.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, thank you for choosing this book (which is not what we matched on!) A brilliant read and piece of world building. Not quite happiness yet for Tain Hu; but a promise of happiness soon.


End file.
